The Last Thing Mary Saw

I love slow burn horror films so these types of films are not alien to me. But as I watched this, I began adjusting myself in my seat with the thoughts about how much further it would take to reach the end credits. That's how terribly bored I felt watching this unstimulating, mundane film. I just felt apathy toward the whole story. I wasn't impressed with the cinematography or setting.

The home look like an ordinary atypical Connecticut home from the outside were the cinematographer used some care to not photograph the driveway and street in front of it. YAWN.

The Last Thing Mary saw is a horror film about two star crossed women in love living in an 1800s traditional Christian household. We begin on Mary , bleeding for the eyes reciting the Lord's Prayer in front of men with guns drawn , and head back in time to see how we got there.

This movie is intentionally made to be a very slow burn and in-fact you could sum up this movies entire plot in about 2-3 sentences.

While there is a "twist" so to speak the movie is not a twisty-turny ride of intrigue and it's more about putting you in the shoes of our protagonists fighting an uphill battle in a "backwards" time. Some of it honestly works. Most of it is just too painfully slow with tons of frustrating scenes with that had so much potential. One scene with Rory Culkin's character was setting up to be fantastic, shocking and then it just kind of ends.

The movie isn't awful but it also really lacks a lot of high points that make movies stand up to me. It won't be the worst movie you watch but it also won't be memorable after it wears off.

I don't know where the suspense and intelligent story line are hidden, but what I know is that I was rather bored the whole time. The production is good, the acting okay, but the story itself is a rather boring affair. I guess, someone got the splendid idea to try to ride on the wave of success The VVitch (2015) earned, but The Last Thing Mary Saw never reaches the quality of that one. Only recommended if you can cope with a lot of people looking serious and talking all day - in all seriousness.

Great film with obvious elements of folk horror. Yes, this sub genre is a slow burning one. That's intentional. I believe we are beginning to see a revival of folk horror with this, Saint Maud, and The Witch being the most significant standouts so far.

A great commentary of how destructive conversation therapy can be to both the "participants" and their families.

If you want jump scares, look elsewhere. If you want thought-provoking, intelligent horror, here it is.

As a final note: not once did I find the film to be too dark. Never did I struggle to see a thing. The reliance on candlelight worked very well here. Maybe other viewers do not have properly calibrated screens or they have too much light in the room?

The 1800s were dark, dreary, way over-religious and not favorable to any sort of gayness. If you didn't know that, well then this film might have something to offer you. For the rest of us, it's just a slow retread of this time in history.